Wired
by LaughableBlackStorm
Summary: By the time Nick realized that the house wasn't as empty as they had hoped, it was all over.


**Wired**

_Author's Note:_ So, I haven't posted anything in a while, mainly because I'm finding it difficult to finish everything I start. This is a story I wrote a little while ago, while attempting to conquer writer's block. Hope you enjoy! Constructive criticism is appreciated, as always.

Pairing: Nick/Greg  
Spoilers: None  
Word count: 824

* * *

Nick met Greg's eyes and secretive grins spread across their faces. The younger man winked and, with heat rising in his cheeks in neck, Nick looked away, his heart thudding rapidly in his chest. They stepped onto their separate paths and followed them automatically, without much thought. One turned left, the other right. They had done it so many times before that the routine was no more shocking than seeing each other sans clothing.

The fridge was running, a soft hum in the background as he knelt beside the middle-aged woman sprawled on the floor. Liquid crimson stained the ivory tiles lain beneath her. Squinting carefully revealed a small drop that had slipped into her eye, wide open and petrified. He clicked a button and the image was recorded for ever.

Above him a floorboard creaked. Momentarily his eyes rolled upwards, before he focused once again on documenting the minute details of the still body before him. A tiny smile graced his lips as he pictured Greg processing the second body in the room directly above him. His chest swelled with warmth at the thought of the younger man. His fingers trembled slightly for a minute and his lungs had trouble filtering through the carbon dioxide and oxygen in his system.

One glance down at the woman extinguished the brightness blossoming inside of him. He swallowed roughly and heard another board shift above him. Greg murmured something to himself. Perhaps he'd found vital evidence.

Suddenly the quiet of the house bothered Nick. Frowning, he tried to concentrate on all the subtle sounds around him – the refridgerator, the pump in the basement, the ticking grandfather clock in the living room, Greg's movements upstairs. Nothing quelled his growing agitation. He could not pinpoint where this unexpected impatience had come from. All he could think was, _It's too quiet. It needs to be louder_.

Or perhaps his subconscious was picking up on all the non-existent hints of what was seconds away from occurring. He looked deep into the woman's eyes and swore he saw something flicker in them, like the headlights of a car flashing through a window at night. Then a cold blanket was wrapped around his body. Except the blanket slipped through his clothes and seeped into his skin, his bones, his soul.

And then the oddest thing happened. Something he had never encountered before, and nothing he had never heard of either.

His mind went blank, and something else entirely directed his actions.

His head slowly turned to the left. Focusing solely on the far corner of the kitchen, he saw, running behind the fridge and barely noticeable, a black wire. His eyes followed its path around all four walls of the kitchen, to where it disappeared inside the wall at the doorway. Mechanically he stood up and walked out to the hallway, which he followed down to the living room. Again, a wire peaked out from behind the television set that didn't belong with the others. And in the downstairs bathroom, in the cabinet under the sink, after dumping all of its contents on the floor, he picked up a black, square device. It had a protruding button in the middle, and his thumb hovered over it.

A floorboard creaked upstairs. His thumb lifted from the device and rested on his gun.

He ascended the stairs cautiously, his breaths silent and shallow, lest the intruder hear him coming. The footsteps were coming from the last room down the hall, on the left. And with a detonator in hand and a gun in the other, he entered that room.

A man with short brown hair and a bright smile looked back at him. "Hey, Nicky." His gaze lowered to 'Nicky's' midsection. "Um…what are you doing, exactly?" The man laughed uneasily, though he tried to sound cheerful. "You knew I was up here, man. Nobody else is with me…" His eyes rose again. "Nick? You okay, babe?" He stepped forward. "You look…weird… Your eyes are…um…"

Nick – his name was Nick, he remembered now, like an old dream trickling back into his memory. Nick lowered the detonator, but raised the gun until it was level with the other man's head.

"N-Nick? Nick, w-what are you doing?"

Then the dream vanished again, into the recesses of his mind, and he released the gun from his grasp. It clattered to the floor, and he saw the other man flinch.

He brought his now free hand back to the detonator. In his peripheral vision he noticed the black wiring outlining the room. Waiting for his command.

He pressed down on the button and the world tumbled towards him, erupting in melting flashes of flames and flying debris. He heard a scream and knew it wasn't his own, because he was laughing. Everything around him turned to ash, including his legs and hands.

And as he flew away from that house, his eyes never left the other man's.

---

_Burning down Neverland (scatter the ashes)  
White lines black tar the matches  
Is this another death by misadventure_

_Sleepers can't just wake the dead  
When needles and lovers collapse on guilty beds_

_(They lied when they said that the good die young)_

_Burning down bridges now (scatter the ashes)  
Godspeed to all you're after  
Is this a life left just to remember_

_(God save the eyes that dim tonight)_

"Godspeed" by Anberlin


End file.
